


Why Does He Like Coffee Shops So Much?

by Sunshineyr



Category: Watch Dogs (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, F/M, Friendship, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Other: See Story Notes, POV Third Person Omniscient, Reader-Insert, Romantic Fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-05
Updated: 2017-03-05
Packaged: 2018-09-28 12:46:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,995
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10101428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sunshineyr/pseuds/Sunshineyr
Summary: "Josh doesn't even drink coffee."Josh Sauchak loves hot chocolate, coffee shops, and the unsecured WiFi. You're a broke college student, despite working part time at an Espresso Bar, and you've recently decided that your job isn't actually that horrible. Sure, taking orders and bagging pastries isn't your life goal, but a new customer just might make that all worth it.More information in notes, please read the full foreword!





	

**Author's Note:**

> So, this is totally self-indulgent. I've written headcanoned autistic characters in the past, like Ray Narvaez Jr. from the Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF, to Spencer Reid from Criminal Minds... but I've never been a member of a fandom where there was an actual, confirmed canonically autistic character, until now.
> 
> Josh Sauchak and I are both on the Autism Spectrum, both have "Asperger's Syndrome," which is kind of a big thing to keep in mind. The term, and other various things that autistic people face and do, are all going to be big themes in this, and I wanted to give fair warning that I'm autistic as well, so his experiences are very similar to the way that I see the world.
> 
> If there are words that aren't really well known, I'll underline them and put the definitions at the bottom of the work for you! Let me know if there are things you want me to explain, please let me know, and I'll add them in.
> 
> With that being said, I hope you all enjoy!
> 
> If you want to follow me on Tumblr, the link to my profile is below!  
> https://sunshineyr.tumblr.com/

“Sitara.”

“Yeah, Josh?” He handed over his ‘nonverbal clipboard’, not at all in a hurry like he’d normally be. “You said my name, you okay?” This… wasn’t normal. No stimuli, nothing loud, he’d just been on his computer browsing Reddit.

_There’s this thing, I don’t understand. Can you ~~tell me~~ explain it to me? I actually need to talk to you about it._

Her eyes glanced up, noticing his posture was awkward, and nodded with a wide smile, grabbing her messenger bag off the center table. “Hey, Josh and I are gonna go get something to eat. Want anything?”

The hackerspace remained somewhat quiet, with Marcus already out, and Ray minding his own off in the corner. Wrench waved her off, pointing to his lunch on the other side of his work space, so she smiled as they walked up the staircase.

“I’m not hungry,” Josh began, Sitara typing in her access code.

“Well, we don’t actually have to eat if you don’t want to. I’m not too hungry either. Coffee?” She stepped into the game shop, laughing at Josh’s scoff at the mere idea of coffee.

“You know I don’t drink coffee. Hot chocolate?” Sitara nodded to his compromise, pushing the door open and holding it there for Josh, as they crossed the street.

“I know a place, too cliche for Wrench or Ray to follow us, if that’s what you’re worried about.” They ducked into one of the more pretty alleyways, as Josh paused, pulling out his phone.

“I’m not. I didn’t want them to hear it, though.” He scrolled as he started walking again, Sitara’s arm linking around his, to guide him while he was distracted. “It’s from this post on Reddit.”

“What sub?” She didn’t really use the site that often, but she knew the general lingo about it. Upvotes, downvotes, crossposts, subreddits, everybody has had sex with OP’s mom, that kind of stuff.

“Doesn’t matter.” She shook his arm slightly, signalling that they were turning, and also trying to coerce him to say it.

“You gotta tell me now, I’m invested.” She grumbled, to Josh’s sigh.

“Autistic-Out-of-The-Loop. I read the whole thing, and I still don’t understand.” He looked up, to see that she had opened the door in front of them, letting go of his arm.

“Okay, let’s get our drinks first, then we’ll talk.” He glanced around the shop, and found a booth in a corner, and smiled before heading off to secure the spot.

His head turned, noticing the lack of eyes, before he sat down with a soft grunt, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath.

The sounds of a soft piano filled his ears, woven with the occasional hiss and dribble from the kitchen behind him. A soft bell rang as the door opened and shut, while the soft voices of customers and baristas sang. There was something about the way that coffee shops felt, something so easily understandable but terrible to describe, that made Josh feel at home. The sugar browning aroma, a mix of the dark grounds and the soft creams and sugars; the dark woods and soft lighting, comfortable chairs, and a certain warmth in the air that surrounded him. No place to Josh was just a place, no… every location in his world was an environment, a sensory playground or a sensory hell. Coffee shops were somewhere in between, depending on circumstances. Here, with Sitara approaching with two cups, and no stress, it’s closer to the absolute best kind of ambiance, the kind he could share.

“Note to self,” he mumbled, “make an excuse to come here on rainy days.”

“What?” Sitara set the cups against the table, before scooting across from her best friend, whose eyes were still shut. “Oh, mental notes. Got it.” His eyes fluttered open, reaching out to the paper and cardboard monstrosity, lukewarm to the touch, but not hot, as he set his phone against the table. “So, what’s so important that you needed to get me alone. You’re not finally asking me out on a date, are you?” She gasped in fake shock, to Josh’s bemusement, before taking a long sip of her coffee.

“No, but thanks for the flattery.” His face showed signs of embarrassment, but Sitara could tell that he was restraining himself, trying to keep calm. “I needed to ask you about sex.”

Sitara nearly spit, her hand slapping against the table with shock. “You’re kidding, right?” He didn’t change his expression, and she realized that this wasn’t a joke. “O-okay then… between Nudle, Wrench’s meat puppet shows, and all the porn you could access, I’d think you’d have plenty of resources, but uh… what is you can’t get answered?”

Josh scrolled to the comment on his phone, drawing a taste of hot chocolate against his tongue, soft, creamy, and perfectly sweet. He hummed against the lid, finding the specific post that he’d been pondering over the entire morning. “This… I don’t get it.”

He slid the phone across the table, and Sitara’s eyes went wide at the topic. “Why is there so many ways to say intercourse?” She read aloud, having to stifle a small giggle, knowing it wouldn’t help the situation in any way. “Well uh, there’s gotta be better context, Josh. What do you mean?”

“You can call it a lot of things, without even touching euphemisms. Having sex, making love,” he paused, biting the inside of his lip, before whispering, “fucking.” He sat back in his chair, while Sitara pondered what he was talking about exactly.

“I get it, you’re a virgin, you’ve never really been in a serious relationship, so you don’t understand these things. It’s normal, especially if you’re someone who doesn’t watch porn.” She tapped her fingernails against the table, considering her options, as the music changed behind them both. “So, where should I start on this one?”

“Definitions.” Josh’s voice was low, but not entirely unheard. Sitara nodded her head.

“Okay. Starting small… having sex is a cold term, blunt. It’s an action, rather than an event.” Josh’s eyes darted about, and she knew he could still hear. “Fucking, it’s different than just,” she paused, making quotations in the air, “having sex.” Her hands dropped to her lap, catching Josh’s attention back to her. “Fucking is heated, sharp. It’s one night stands, and alcohol infused attraction. Fucking is sometimes seen as a need, where people get so desperate for anyone that they’ll sleep with anyone.”

“Then, what is making love?”

She sighed, unsure of how to answer that. “Making love is, well… a whole different league of it’s own. It’s slow, passionate, and emotional. Relationships, mutual pining, that sort of stuff… that leads to making love. People like to say this, when they could mean any other kind of sex, because it’s glamorous, but nobody really experiences it that way.” She bit her lip as she looked over Josh’s cheeks, a slight blush mingling behind the small freckles and moles, beauty marks shining against the pale pink. “D-do you understand what I’m trying to say?”

“Yes,” he took a sip of his drink, and refused to let go for quite a bit as he pondered this new information, “I just don’t think I’d truly understand until I’ve been through it.”

“Soon enough, Josh.” She reached across the gap, shaking his clenched fist for a moment. “There’s someone out there who is going to love you, and want to be with you for you, not anything else. She, or he… who knows, they won’t treat you like Lenni. They won’t do that to you, not if I can help it.” She took a sip of her coffee, and noticed that Josh had suddenly stopped bouncing his leg.

Dedsec never discouraged Josh from stimming, be it with a fidget cube, his chew stims, to physical movements like spinning, hand flaps, or drumming against his legs with his hands. In the beginning, Josh didn’t feel comfortable doing these, and would force himself to sit still, often resulting in meltdowns where he could end up hurting himself. That was, until Sitara came up with a constructive way for Josh to stim in front of the group: they’d all do them. It didn’t matter how busy they were, if Sitara could sense a good opportunity coming, she made sure everyone participated in some way. It was actually fun, and Sitara thought of it as group bonding, when in reality, Josh just needed to get some pent up feelings out.

What started as an innocent little tapping movement, while waiting for something to render, upload, or download, became an opportunity for Marcus to work on his break dancing, while Wrench, Josh, and Sitara made as much rhythmic noise as possible. Spinning was one of the more fun ones for Wrench, because it was great to be able to break through that tough punk exterior for a few minutes. They’d cue up ‘Come On Eileen,’ holding hands and turning around, like an odd game of Ring Around the Rosie. Those moments were some of Sitara’s favorite’s too, seeing her friends genuinely smiling, laughing, and letting their reputations go. Hand flaps, though, were her all time favorite of Josh’s stims. They'd bounce around on the balls of their feet, while Josh's excitement just sort of... emanated from him.

Of course, there were times when stimming wasn’t going to work. There were moments where all stimuli was too much, and he needed softer stims to calm down. And yes, Sitara had made these possible for him as well, by making a little sensory deprivation cave under the staircase. Soft fabric covered the padded walls, ceiling, and floor, a warming pad laid under the bottom fabric sheet, to keep cold cement at bay. Special music tracks would go through special headphones, while he watched cookie decorating, paint mixing, and other various visual stims through a projector. Josh always ached for something in these moments, but he'd never tell the group. Weighted blankets helped, but it was a secret that he just couldn't put into words, no matter how badly he wanted to ask. 

He sat still, his face softened, looking just beyond Sitara’s face. She noticed he wasn’t looking at her, but beside her, and turned around.

“Today’s just full of surprises, isn’t it?” Sitara turned around and took a sip of her coffee.

“What do you mean by that?” Josh’s eyes still followed her, his head in hand as he gazed dreamily.

“Well, according to her CtOS profile, she’s a student in college, scholarships for volunteering… and she’s a Computer Science minor!” Sitara glanced up to see Josh trying to peer over her phone. “Hey, Earth to Josh,” she waved in front of his face, pointing down to his phone, “you have a profiler too.”

“What branch? Does it say? You know I don’t use the app that much...” Josh practically begged Sitara for the answer, excitedly tapping his fingers on the cushion beside his thighs.

“Dunno, it doesn’t say.” She lied, picking up her cup and noticing it was empty. “So, will we be coming here for coffee tomorrow?”

As they went to leave, you smiled and waved at them both, and Sitara smiled back. They’d be coming back tomorrow, no doubt in her mind.

 

* * *

 

Definitions:

  * Nonverbal: Some autistic people have times where they have trouble verbally communicating, while others cannot speak whatsoever. Some people keep a notebook to write in, for moments that they need to say something.
  * Stimming: Nickname for Self Stimulatory Behaviors, the repetition of physical movements, sounds, or repetitive movement of objects. This type of behavior is listed as one of the symptoms of autism, in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM-5, the book that psychologists use for diagnosing psychological disorders. (Copied from [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stimming))
  * Stim: Short for Stimming, used after a type of stimulatory behavior, like 'auditory stim.'
  * Hand Flapping: Here's a [visual](https://sunshineyr.tumblr.com/post/154811202869/catnippackets-happy-stimming), and you should really look at it... it's super cute.




End file.
